Halloween

A Christian Meditation

Whatever Samhain actually meant, the modern American Holiday of Halloween seems to have garnered its own peculiar meaning. This is really par for the course with anything Pagan or NeoPagan adjacent, Wicca after all was invented wholesale in the 30s by an English Nudist (this is for reals). We aren't really talking about ancient traditions or rituals, but relatively recent phenomena. Partially because of this I don’t think it takes a cultural expert or historian to discern (at least in part) the real meaning of what we call Halloween. And it seems to be a celebration of what could be called “popular” horror, best exemplified by slasher films. And by celebration I do mean celebration.

As a christian I’ve mostly seen no contradiction between the horror genre in general and my faith. In fact I think the two are often philosophically complimentary. When I was in middle school my father gave me an article from JETS (Journal of Evangelical Theology) that made the case for a Christian appreciation of Horror along these lines:

Horror actually affirms our basic moral assumptions about the universe, it has to affirm the existence of good and evil in order for it to even function as Horror.

I will call this the Christian defense of Horror. And I think it mostly works, or to be more precise probably works. Horror definitely affirms the existence of evil, and thereby must assume some kind of morality. This was William Peter Blatty’s apologetic defense for The Exorcist. If supernatural evil exists then God exists, and supernatural evil definitely exists therefore God exists. But I’ve often wondered if this argument actually makes all that much sense. As with many things one’s perspective is not irrelevant. Maybe all that exists is supernatural evil? That's the point of HP Lovecraft's horrific mythology.

For the Christian, from our perspective, Horror means something different from what it means at the popular level. The Exorcist, book and film, take the nature of evil very seriously and not as something to be celebrated. But much popular horror is really not doing this at all. Feminist interpretations will sometimes try to make a similar case to the Christian defense of horror, because these films often highlight violence towards women, etc.

But I was awakened from my absurd slumber over what was really happening in contemporary Halloween a few years ago while driving in Los Angeles. A car stopped at a light in front of me and the entire trunk had been turned into a sort of monument to Jason Vorhees (the main character in the Friday the 13th franchise). And I simply couldn’t avoid the obvious anymore, most of what passes for Halloween is a celebration of death, violence, and everything that is utterly horrible about humanity. The slashers in the various slasher franchises usually switch to become protagonists, even anti heroes, over time. Because the slasher is the main character in the slasher franchise. Even the Raptors and T-Rex were the real main characters in the original Jurassic Park and have not so subtly become overt protagonists in the later (and inferior) iterations of that franchise. I call this Freddy Krueger syndrome, because the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise did this most shamelessly.

Both of my grandmothers have passed away, but if I were to talk with them about this they would've said “duh.”

Of course neither of them would have actually said duh, but something to that effect. Halloween isn't exactly subtle. For many people Halloween is just a harmless holiday about dressing up and candy. But the prime way its interpreted culturally is a celebration of death. Assumedly, and most charitably, this is a vain attempt to celebrate life. But its hard to not see that the materialistic nihilism of Americana is being exemplified in those that watch the slasher film for “fun”. The enjoyment for so many is borderline pornographic prurient fascination with the next “kill” and its effectiveness will be judged on how “cool” it kill was.

I’m not saying anything profound, but these are thoughts I’ve had for a while and I thought they needed saying and sharing. I’m trying to not sound too shrill and judgmental, but its hard to observe what is happening here in a non moral way. And once seen its hard not to find this celebration disturbing.

I've seen a t-shirt that has Michael Myers (the “antagonist” from the Halloween franchise) with his iconic kitchen knife out and the words “Chasing you” in a pink heart. This exemplifies the real meaning of halloween. I get that this shirt is a joke...but is that joke funny? I suppose I can see how this might be helpful to someone, in the same way that Mel Brooks making jokes about the Nazis and Racism disarms those evils. But I'm not sure that's whats happening. I think its probably just a transgressive joke that celebrates death. In some ways the scariest thing about these observations is how old they make me feel, as if I'm a tut tutting Grandpa on the back porch.

If the Horror film was a genuine exploration of evil from a balanced moral worldview it might be truly interesting and redemptive. But if its merely about recognizing that we aren’t dead yet, that’s quite sad. And I think that's what most of this celebration is about. Watching people being slaughtered by serial killers makes the viewers grateful that they aren't having similar horrors inflicted upon them. But death is waiting, for all of us. It's the greatest equalizer there is. We all pay taxes and we all die.

I still think that I personally benefit from horror fiction, written and in film. But while death may make us all equal Horror is not created equal. I recently discovered (in the same sense that Columbus discovered, meaning that he didn’t) the Bob Dylan song Man in a Long Black Coat. It is utterly haunting, and I think perfectly exemplifies the possibilities for good in Halloween and Horror. It feels like Flannery O’Connor’s soul took up habitation in Dylan’s guitar. Each line drips with the kind of holy lament about the state of our world as a haunted place, where danger creeps around in the shadows looking to devour the innocent. It’s that perfect kind of Christian darkness, its what horror really should be about.

I have no solutions for the cultural predicament of Halloween, but I don’t think fundamentalist critiques about Satan and witchcraft make much sense. They aren't really critiques they're just pearl clutching based around passages in Leviticus and “witches”. Halloween is here, and at least for a while, its going to stay the way it is, better to understand what it is and what it means.

Meditation for the day:

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesian 5:16